Because the sea level difference between Kushimoto and Uragami is large in periods of nLMP and small in periods of LMP (Fig. 2b), the sea level difference has been used as an index showing the periods of nLMP and those of LMP (Sekine and Fujita, 1999). The warm and saline Kuroshio water, separated from the main path of the Kuroshio, has a tendency to approach to the western area off Kii Peninsula to off Muroto-misaki in periods of nLMP, while it approaches the eastern area off Kii Peninsula to Omae-zaki (cf. Fig. 1a) in periods of LMP. It is shown that the difference in vertically integrated specific volume between off Kushimoto and off Uragami almost equals the difference in observed sea level between Kushimoto and Uragami (Fig. 3).

Fig. 5　Schematic representation of the model ocean (Sekine and Kutsuwada, 1994). (a)Domain of the model (hatched region). (b)A flat bottom model with a depth of 4500m and (c)a bottom topography of simplified bottom model. Contour intervals of the isopleth of depth in (c)are 500m and regions deeper than 4000m are stippled.

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